​Some Auckland Councillors are asking how it is possible that the cost estimates for building the controversial City Rail Link could have blown out by 20% since they were told less than a month ago that any cost blow-out was ‘unlikely’. To put $500 million into context, it is one third of the annual rate take.

Councillors Brewer, Quax and Wood have written to the Auditor General expressing their renewed concern that Council officers are acting with a recklessness that exposes ratepayers to considerable financial risk.

we invite you to also concern yourself with how Council is actually going to fund any significant operational shortfall going forward. Cost containment, both CAPEX and OPEX, will be the biggest challenge for the City Rail Link project, with ratepayers (not taxpayers) being the most exposed, given that the project remains council-led.​

​Their concern has been heightened following a statement from the Prime Minister that the CRL will ‘almost certainly cost more than they thought’.

Confirmation by Auckland Transport that the cost of the City Rail Link will undoubtedly rise to over $3 billion does not surprise three Auckland councillors who recently wrote to the Auditor-General outlining their concerns about the project and urging the Office of the Auditor-General to ensure a close oversight. The trio now wonder what the ‘no go’ point is with the CRL.

“This latest half a billion dollar cost escalation is exactly what we feared and hence why we wrote to the Auditor-General last month. We all know the original budget, but no one has any idea still of the full costs and risks and where both will fall. This is unprecedented given the sheer size of the project and the fact that construction has already begun. Our concerns lie with Auckland ratepayers – present and future,” says Auckland Councillor for Orakei Cameron Brewer.

Councillor for North Shore George Wood says councillors need to be given the full facts as to what is really known about the costs of this massive project. “The CFO of Auckland Transport promised councillors up-to-date figures by June and we’re still waiting. We’ve been kept in the dark for far too long. I believe it’s time to stand back and assess the Central Rail Link project and consider if Auckland can really afford to go into such a project where the costs are not finalised,” says Mr Wood. ​

Auckland Council officers run their own agenda. Elected officials are regarded by them as a mere irritation. To the bureaucrats elected officials are like the mosquito that keeps buzzing near your ear at night – something to be batted away with lots of hand waving and hot air, or to be squashed into oblivion.

​Councillor for Howick Dick Quax says just three weeks ago a senior council official assured him that a cost blow-out on the City Rail Link was unlikely. “I have been warning of the very real possibility of a cost blow-out on the City Rail Link for some years now. Overseas experience has shown that urban rail projects almost always under estimate costs and over-estimate patronage. Sadly, it seems Auckland will be no exception to this rule,” says Mr Quax. ​The three councillors said they were disappointed by the Auditor-General’s relatively dismissive response to their concerns and hope she will take heed of this latest development.

The Auditor General is another highly paid, but largely ineffective, government official whose job is very much the same as Council bureaucrats. She treats elected representatives with exactly the same contempt as Council bureaucrats.

In short, what is lacking in local government is accountability for public money because of ineffective or non-existent checks and balances. It is to be hoped that the current review of Local Government Act will seek to address this lack of accountability and tighten the fiscal requirements of local government.

The CRL project is largely responsible for Council debt ballooning to $20,000 for every household in Auckland. Debt is at its the maximum permitted limit. As I have pointed out in numerous blogs, the CRL is bankrupting not only the city but has the potential to bankrupt each and every one of us. Worse still the CRL will do little or nothing to alleviate Auckland’s traffic woes. It is a symbol of Brown’s failed mayoralty and should be stopped right now.

Cost + 20% was the upper level of the budget. Projected spend is half way between upper and lower level. Cost has not overrun. Please retract your statement.

Reply

Jacob

13/7/2016 08:37:54 am

Here's the write-up, which had you done your research you would have come to the same conclusion. http://transportblog.co.nz/2016/07/11/crl-cost-blowout-overblown/

Reply

Andy

12/7/2016 11:22:54 pm

Silly woman, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about

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Simon O'Connor

12/7/2016 11:54:29 pm

If the three do nothing numpties in brewer quax and wood dont like a project, then i support that project. 3 wastes of space! Remember when their numpty predecessors to these 3 fools under delivered on the harbour bridge. CRL is fantastic, you bore me.

Reply

Harriet

13/7/2016 05:20:28 pm

AT said that the project could be 20% over or under estimate and that until the tender was completed the actual amount wouldn't be known. Of course they turned that into it would cost 3 billion, rather than it would cost somewhere in the 2 minimum - 3 maximum range.

Intellectually Dishonest, but it sure got lots of views, great for the NZ Herald's ad revenue.